The present invention pertains generally to pressure washers and more particularly to hot pressure washers, including steam cleaners, which are oil fired.
Hot pressure washers and steam cleaners have been in existence for over 70 years and are commonly used for many cleaning tasks, such as cleaning grease and oil from equipment, degreasing and sanitizing tanks and otherwise cleaning equipment, machinery and parts, such as truck fleets, farm and construction equipment and concrete floors.
The hot pressure washers generally provide water pressures from 750 psi to 3,500 psi and volumes from 2.3 g.p.m. to 5.0 g.p.m. The corresponding steam cleaners work in a somewhat different manner compared to hot pressure washers. Steam cleaners do not actually make steam in the sense of the word. They actually produce 85% to 90% solid water and the steam is simply a byproduct of creating pressure through heat. The primary difference between steam cleaners and pressure washers is that steam cleaners only attain pressures of 100-200 psi at a significantly reduced volume comparatively (70 to 120 g.p.h.). Steam cleaners use the 170 times water vapor expansion when the super heated water explodes into the atmosphere through the nozzle to achieve their cleaning power, whereas pressure washers simply use the pump pressure to achieve the similar result. The present invention pertains to both hot pressure washers and steam cleaners and reference to pressure washers hereafter includes both.
The main problem encountered with present day hot pressure washers and steam cleaners is that they are not easily disassembled and serviced. All of the prior art units incorporate a unitary blower-burner assembly which is difficult to access and repair, and they additionally require separate or special drive motors for pumping fuel and water.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a pressure washer, either of the hot pressure washer type or steam cleaner type, which is to devoid of the aforementioned disadvantages.